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Is there anything special, a senior should
put into his resume? We don't think so. But, you should
see that your resume is relevant to the job you
are applying for. As a senior, you will have had
a lot of different experiences. Don't fill
your resume with irrelevant job experience. Try to concentrate
on the essential skills. Ask yourself what the
employer wants and only then, put to paper what you can
offer. Make it short and concise!

The resume is primarily a means to sell your
capabilities and services. The Resume provides
details of your skills and experiences to a
potential employer so that he can see, in a short
summary, how your skills are relevant
to the potential job and how you
could contribute something of value in your
future workplace.

Age discrimination, unfortunately, exists
and with your college degree 30 or 40 years back, there
is no way that you can hide your age.You should not have
to do that either, because what you sell to the
prospective employer and his human resources manager is
relevant experience. And the word"
r e l e v a n t " is the key here.
Remember, the resume is a marketing document and not an
autobiography. Some important points you
should remember are shown below:

Concentrate
your relevant experience which you want
to emphazise on the last ten to 15 years.
Most of the rest will not have much impact on you
getting the job. Therefore, keep the summary of
job experiences before that very short. You might
still mention relevant experiences, without date,
during that period in your summary as "Other
experiences gained were....."

If you
spent a long time with the same employer
rising through the ranks, you might as
well summarize this in one or two
sentences, without going into to much
detail. Only emphasize relevant and
recent experience.

Do give
dates of your education. Even, if it has
been back some time, it was an
achievement that is relevant!

Emphasize
the relevant achievements in your
professional life. This is often not easy to do!

Try to link
the achievements to the qualities you offer and
which are relevant to the job that you
apply for.

A resume is your
advertising and selling tool.You might fulfill
all the requirements for a specific position, but your resume
fails, if the employer does not, on the basis of what he
sees, immediately conclude that you are the person for
the job. Remember, your first priority is to
create a resume that attracts the readers immediate
attention. The initial
twenty seconds will decide whether it ends
up in the "under consideration" or the
"rejected" file.

The most effective resumes are
focused specifically on a job and address
the potential employer's stated requirements for the
position. The more you know about the duties
and skills the job demands the better you can organize
your resume around these requirements and the more
effective the resume will be. This is a specially
important point for seniors.You want to
show your experience and make it "shine". Because
what you
have more than younger people is, experience
and maturity!

The primary requirement for writing
a good resume is, information about the job on offer.
It is not enough to regurgitate what you have done in the
past, since that information, with all its
accomplishments, skills and experiences is only
relevant within the requirements of the position for
which you want to be considered.The more you know
about the job and the employer the more likely you can
"cut the cloth to the right size" and create a
resume, that explains how you will be
an asset for your future employer in
the job he offers.

The cover letter is your introduction to a
potential employer. What you write in it, is the first
impression the person gains about, your capabilities and
your personality. Therefore everyone who sends out a
resume needs a cover letter. Whether you send it by mail,
e-mail, fax or delivered by hand, is immaterial.

Every job offered has different requirements
and it is therefore essential that you write a specific
cover letter for every job application. There is no such
thing as a "general cover letter".
Most potential employers see a general cover letter as a
sign of a lack of genuine interest in the job and, your
chances of being considered for the offered position will
be significantly hurt. Therefore, take the time and make
the effort to send a cover letter that is tailored to the
specific job and to the company you are applying
to.

Although, it creates additional work, the
positive side of the cover letter is that it provides you
with an additional chance to emphasize what you have to
contribute to the job, the company or organization.
Remember, the person looking at your submission will ask
himself: "How can this person help
us?" Your cover letter has to answer
that question in your own words. Your resume will
provide the detailed support of the answer.

The
Essential Rules for creating an effective Cover Letter

The
Cover letter must not have
any spelling or typing errors.
Have it read by someone else and checked before
you send it.

Is
is important to get the hiring manager's name so
that you can address your application to a
specific person. If you send your
resumes uninvited to the personnel department,
make every attempt to find his details .
Sometimes a phone call will give you the
information about who makes the hiring decisions.
Be sure the person's name is spelled
correctly and that you have his or her correct
title. Address the person with his or
her proper social title, e.g. "Mr.,"
"Ms.," "Mrs.,"
"Miss," "Dr.," or
"Professor." Keep the Cover Letter
formal and to the point.

Write
the Cover Letter in your own words and
do not use a standardized "copied format
letter". Do not be chatty or too
personal: Keep it formal! In order to be
effective, the Cover Letter should transmit and
highlight your relevant experience, knowledge,
enthusiasm, and focus on the potential job in a
logical and systematic manner. Group the items
you specifically want to address and be concise
within each paragraph.

Do
not use slang, "Internet jargon ", or
other expressions which some people consider
"natural" (as opposed to
academic or formal!).Today, many
employers are seriously concerned about the
"sloppy" and inappropriate use of
language. They may deduce, once you
become an employee, you will communicate using
inappropriate language. On the other hand, do
not use words you picked from the Thesaurus without
being absolutely sure, that you understand their
proper meaning and the context in which a word or
expression is used. If you are not sure about
your grammar, there are books you can purchase.
If you submit an application for an international
job, remember that writing styles and grammar
differs from one English speaking country to
another.

Indicate
in your Cover Letter that you have acquired some
knowledge about the company and/or the industry.
Do some research, before you write the resume and
the cover letter. But keep the communication of
this knowledge within clearly defined limits. The
purpose of showing your potential employer that
you know something about them, is to make it
clear, that you did not pick the company at
random. You want to show the hiring manager, that
you know, who they are and that you have
deliberately chosen them!

Use
language that is appropriate and relevant to the
employer. If you are applying for an
advertised position, use the advertised
requirements and work them into your resume or
cover letter, if necessary emphasize them in bold
script. Be sure to address the specific
requirements and shortly indicate how you can
fulfill them.

We thought long and hard about this
question! After all, "everyone can write a
resume", so, why use someone else who is not
familiar with your particular circumstances and who does
not know your ambitions job wise? Maybe, the answer is in
this very sentence: In your own eagerness to present
yourself in the best possible light to a future employer,
you overlook what the employer sees or wants to see from
you! You present in your resume what you want, rather
than what the employer requires or what he is looking
for.

A professional resume writer
is not the prisoner of his own representation.
He or she looks at the task of writing a resume in a
neutral fashion, dispassionate and with distance to your
own past. As a consequence, that resume writer might see
strengths and weaknesses that are not seen as important
by you. The distance creates a balanced picture of
yourself.

Most people argue that each resume has to be
written as a response to a specific job, because only
some of the things, you might offer, will be useful in
that job. Therefore, the resume as a response to a job
vacancy, has to be tailor-made. That is
absolutely correct! However, if you start off
with a well written generic resume that projects your
abilities and your strengths, while it puts your
weaknesses somewhat in the background, you are starting
out with an advantage.

A Resume Appraiser, as
opposed to a writer, will look at your resume and
recommend, if required, changes. There are numerous free
sites for that, but you have to remember that the
business of the appraiser comes from resume writing and
the free appraisal is one way to get clients. That does
not reduce their usefulness in creating a good resume,
but you have to be aware of it.

There are a number of sites offering Resume
Writing Services. Jobs4workand JobLine
International also have a team of highly
experienced resume writers that offer resume and Cover
letter writing. Below is a comparative analysis of some
of the services offered on the net. Click on the names on
the far left, if you want to know more. Prices may vary
from time to time.

Specialist Resume Writing
Services

We have a
resume writing Service that
offers a written resume sent to you by e-mail
based on your data, plus a generic Cover Letter
(or specific, if you want that) . Turn around is
usually 24-72 hours. MS Word format or html. Recommended!

By providing powerful, distinctive
resumes that consistently win interviews, our
hand-picked team of certified resume writers have
helped thousands of clients articulate their
qualifications and land jobs at the nation's top
employers, from Microsoft, Cisco, and Goldman
Sachs to McKinsey, AT&T, and the federal
government. Price Range varies with importance of
jobs. Recommended!

Monster is not only a large job
board, but also offers a variety of support
services for job seekers. One of them is Resume
editing ($119) and Resume writing (from $215) .
In their own words: We know what employers want.
We market your strengths to edge out the
competition. We tailor your resume to meet your
specific needs. Recommended!

We have had direct experience with
the above services we recommend. Other services
are by no means inferior, but we have not had any direct
experience with them.

If you do not want to spend the money for
a rewrite of your resume or CV you can always have it
edited. Remember, other people, especially those who deal
with resumes every day see other things than you, the
writer. Maybe what to you looks like some clever
statement is not so great when read by an outsider.
Resume editing is an effective way to have an "uninterested
third party" look at the impact of your resume.
And for US$ 49.00, you are certainly not losing a lot!